Alamo Heights Book

At the close of the nineteenth century, Théophile Valence and his wife, Suzanne, sail into the harbor of Santa Sofía, a remote Mexican copper-mining town. In the ship's hold are 2,348 pieces of a cast-iron church that has been designed by Gustave Eiffel—a monument to colonialism, and to the European faith in modernity, that Valence will assemble here in "Lower California," on the fringes of empire. But neither Théo nor Suzanne is prepared for the effect her beauty and clairvoyance will have on the town and its inhabitants–an effect far greater than the incongruous church itself. As her husband applies himself faithfully to his work, the insular French community weighs the charms and merits of her presence, which also (and innocently) excites the imagination of a flamboyant Mexican officer and an itinerant American prospector. Meanwhile, these tensions are reflected by those inherent to such a hybrid place: part European, part American and wholly apart from any world familiar to any of its inhabitants except the Indians whose labors account for its very existence. Part love story, part adventure, part mystery, Air & Fire is a magnificent tale of conflicting passions and cultures, set in a harsh and magical landscape where Parisian boulevards have been constructed in the dust, and where desires of all sorts exceed the opportunities of fulfillment.